Altean Lance
by Bomb-diggity-dog
Summary: Lance is Altean, but doesn't know it. At least, not until he falls into the trap meant for Allura.


"I'm telling you guys, Galra Keith is way funnier." Hunk implored. "He- he makes _jokes!_ "

"Not true. I don't know where Hunk gets this from." Hunk glared at Keith as he denied his claims. Everyone caught the subtle smirk Keith shot Hunk, but nobody wanted to spoil it, which Lance found hilarious.

"I don't know Hunk," said Lance. "Doesn't seem very Keith-like."

"Keith's way too emo to crack a joke," Pidge agreed.

Hunk vigorously shook his head, determined to convince his fellow Paladins. "That's the thing though. This isn't regular emo Keith! This is _Galra_ Keith!"

"Just because I'm Galra doesn't mean I'm not Keith." He pointed out.

Allura coughed pointedly before Hunk could interject. "Galra are actually quite similar to humans, you know. And Alteans, for that matter."

"It's true! Their biology runs parallel in many ways." Said Coran. "Externally, at least, it can be hard to distinguish Alteans and humans. Internally, however, you can find that-"

Coran's biology lecture was cut short when there was a sound suspiciously like the castle dying, before the room was dark. Then, the room was bathed in the red of the blaring alarms. Without skipping a beat, Allura vaulted over the table, which almost painfully reminded Lance of Shiro. The way they stepped up to lead without a second thought…

Lance swallowed and pushed those emotions down- this wasn't the time for that. In one fluid movement, he grabbed and activated his bayard, pushed his chair back, and sprinted after the Altean princess and the paladins. Behind him, Coran huffed to keep up, while pulling out a hologram of the castleship around him.

"There appears to have been an intruder on the west side of the castle!" He said. "Princess, that's near _our_ quarters!"

"Pidge, Hunk, Coran, you take the front of the ship and get defenses back online." Allura ordered. Coran, Pidge and Hunk peeled off to the right, sprinting towards the control room. The rest of them kept straight, nearing the west quarters. "Keith, you come with me to engage the intruders directly." She and the red paladin barreled through another doorway, with the west end in sight. A form at the end of the passage was in Allura's room. "And Lance, you cover us!"

"You got it!" Lance confirmed. As they dashed down ahead, he moved into sniping position with practiced ease. Through the scope, he could see Keith and Allura approaching four- no, _five_ targets. All of them looked to be Galra- not that it really mattered at this point. As they neared them, they stopped rummaging through The Princesses stuff and pulled out long blades. Keith engaged one, blocking his strike before smacking him with the flat of his bayard. Allura took another, and he held up surprisingly well against her hand to hand. A third was approaching behind her, before Lance struck him with a rubber bullet to the head. The Galra staggered backwards, and Allura finished him off with a well aimed kick. Keith came up beside her, and they fought side-by-side, with Lance picking off enemies from a distance. The fallen ones were rising again with renewed vigor, then, suddenly-

Lance felt a harsh impact to his side. His bayard dropped, and another blow was dealt to his face before he could recover. He felt something warm and sticky stream down his face. His attacker attempted to strike again, but not before Lance could roll out of the way and retrieve his bayard. He rolled into a crouch, spinning around and shooting him. The Galra soldier doubled over, and Lance took advantage of the moment to strike the back of his head with the butt of his bayard. The soldier collapsed, unconscious.

Lance swiftly turned his rifle back towards the battle, but it seemed the Galra had already left. A glance at his side told him the seemingly unconscious one had fled as well. How did that happen?

That was stupid. He'd let his guard down, and they'd snuck up on him. Not only that, but he'd let his only captive escape. Regardless of his own stupid mistakes, he darted down to where Allura and Keith were waiting. A few seconds later, the castle whirred back to life.

"Keith! Allura!" The two glanced up as Lance rushed down the hall. "Are you alright?"

"I think so," said Allura. "But the Galra got away. And we haven't the faintest clue what they were doing her in the first place."

"I can't think of any reason why they'd search your room of all places," Keith added. "Why not attack the crystals if they had a chance?"

"Hang on, what's this?"

Everyone glanced down at what Lance was referring too. It was a cylinder of some kind, with some Altean characters on the side. Allura knelt down beside it before Coran came barrelling into the room.

"Don't touch that!" Coran jumped in front of the princess, with Pidge and Hunk close behind.

"What? What is it?"

"I've seen these before!" The Altean man announced. "They were used in the war! They specifically target Alteans, and are near deadly to them!"

The team staggered away from the object with that newfound knowledge. Allura looked extremely pale.

"So that's what they were trying to do," Keith muttered.

"What do we do with it?" Hunk inquired.

"I'm afraid neither Allura nor I can handle it, but we should be fine as long as we don't touch it. From what I know based off of your time in the pods, humans should be able to handle it without an issue, but I don't know about Galra."

The paladins all looked at each other doubtfully. After a beat of silence, Lance sighed and stepped forward.

"I got this. Don't want you guys to get hurt." He grinned. The others groaned, but shot him grateful looks. Lance crouched by the object, and inspected it carefully. After one last look towards his team, he closed his hand around it.

Immediately, he was engulfed in total agony. He felt as though he were on fire. He screamed and gasped and convulsed. His teammates shouted in concern, but he couldn't answer them. Though the pain seemed to be centered from the object, he couldn't get his hand to release it. It felt as though his whole being was on fire. People were screaming his name. He could barely see through the blur of his tears, and the edges of his vision were darkening; he could feel himself fading away.

Was this how he was going to die?

His senses were numbing: he could barely hear his teammates screaming his name in concern anymore, and he couldn't see anything but a bright, white light. He was fading fast.

Suddenly, relief flooded his senses. He gasped for air as his senses slowly returned, and he slowly began to see people above him through barely opened eyes. Hunk was weeping with Pidge, while Allura was stifling a sob behind her hands. Coran stood beside her, looking shell shocked. He wondered where Keith, before his touch came back to him. Keith was collapsed over him, his face buried into his neck. Lance could feel his rapid heartbeat through the material of his shirt. Lance realized that he must have been the one to remove the object from his hands as he processed that their hands were clasped tightly together.

"Lance!" Pidge cried. As much as he tried, the blue paladin couldn't get himself to respond. He couldn't even get himself to move. "Lance, Lance please wake up!" He wanted to tell her he was okay, but he couldn't move. Pidge collapsed onto her knees and buried her face into her hands. "Lance, please wake up…"

Hunk choked back a sob, simultaneously trying to comfort pidge and keep himself from collapsing. It didn't work.

Keith weakly pulled himself up from Lance. His cheeks were streaked with tears as he gently shook his friend's shoulders. "Please Lance. You need to wake up." He whispered. "I need you to wake up."

Silence, then no response.

Keith wrapped his arms around Lance and let his tears flow

Slowly but surely, Lance worked his eyes open. Every movement hurt, but he needed to tell his team he was okay, that they didn't need to worry. He couldn't stand seeing his team cry over him; he didn't deserve that.

" _K… Keith?_ " He rasped.

Gasps rose from all around the room. As he forced his eyes open he saw faces mixed with varying degrees of joy and shock. After a moment of silence, everyone began talking at once.

"Lance! Lance you're alive!"

"Oh my god, buddy, I thought you were dead-"

"Don't ever do that-"

"Lance," Keith pulled him closer, and Lance weakly returned the hug. "Thank god."

"Hey mullet." Lance's voice was raw, but Keith understood him just fine.

"Oh quiznak, Lance, your _face!_ "

The clamor died down as Pidge pointed in shock towards Lance's face. Everyone gaped.

"What? What's wrong with my face?" Lance's voice was stronger and more panicked.

"Well I'll be quiznaked." Coran said softly.

"Lance… those are Altean markings." Said Allura.

It took Lance a moment to process what she meant. He had Altean markings? Did that mean…

"You're an Altean."

Lance bolted upright, hardly noticing the sharp pain. "I- That can't be right." He looked around. "Can it?"

"Lance, buddy, you need to look at yourself." Well damn. If Hunk meant it, then this was serious. Keith untangled himself from his friend as Allura shuffled around behind them, before handing him a handheld mirror. Lance looked himself over with widened eyes.

Beneath his eyes were two golden markings like Allura and Coran.

"That would explain your reaction to the weapon." Keith pointed out.

"No, I can't be- I'm not-" Lance found all the events of the past hour catching up to him, and tears welled up in his eyes. Before he knew it, Keith was wrapped comfortingly around him again, and he was sobbing into his shoulder. Behind him, Allura gently rubbed his back.

"Lance, I don't know what this means exactly," Allura began. "But whatever it is, we'll be here for you, okay? It's going to be alright."

Lance took a shuddering breath, tears still in his eyes, before he nodded. He found something comforting in her sisterly gaze, and in his heart, he knew that she was right.

It would be okay.


End file.
